Questions For A Neo-Confederate Justice? An Exposé of Legal Darwinism and Neo-Redemptionist Federalism by Asa Gordon* For Senators who will follow Justice Clarence Thomas’ lead and establish that the President has kept his word, the reason to reject his nominee is a given. President Bush made a campaign promise to nominate a justice in the tradition of conservative Justices Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas. The August 4, 2002 issue of The Washington Post Magazine reports in the article “Supreme Discomfort” that Ken Masugi, one of Thomas’ aides at the EEOC in the ’80s, spent many hours discussing ideas and ideology…

Chuck Schumer is the consummate politician. He knows how to play the system. He deals with inside the box, he is pragmatic. Single payer doesn’t have a prayer in Congress and so he isn’t going to expend capitol on changing that. In some ways he is better than someone say like John Hall, who likes to argue that he is progressive and fails to vote because he is worried about the poltiical backlash. I always prefer politicians who speak their version of truth rather than lead us on to think they are our friends who will do what we want. Someone…

Not A Republican Surge Green-Rainbow Party Says With the surprise victory of Scott Brown over Martha Coakley in Tuesday’s special Senate election the conventional wisdom regarding the dominance of the Democratic Party in Obama-era Massachusetts has been shattered. But in the scramble to understand what the voters said on Tuesday a fundamental lesson is being missed. This was a revolt of progressives against a hijacked Democratic Party – not a sudden conversion of Ted Kennedy supporters to Republican ranks. The polls and the hard vote totals bear this out. Brown benefited from two very strong trends: First a sizable number…

Supreme Court legitimizes an already corrupt system by Lynne Williams This decision doesn’t make a dramatic change in our political system because corporations already control the political debate in this country. It further legitimizes an already corrupt system by allowing corporations to spend shareholder and customer money on direct political attempts to influence voting. Corporations and unions will no longer have to hide behind the “Call senator xyz and tell her you don’t want government healthcare.” Now corporations will be able to simply say, “Vote for senator xyz because she supports the insurance companies.” The big danger here is how…

by Ron Forthofer Although many people have given high marks to President Obama for his State of the Union speech, I think he failed to offer much change from many of former President George W. Bush’s failed policies. The Wall Street Bailout Perhaps Obama’s most important lack of change was his continuing Bush’s treatment of the banks and Wall Street. The Obama administration retained Ben Bernanke, the Bush appointee as head of the Federal Reserve, brought in Tim Geithner as Secretary of the Treasury and Larry Summers as the lead economic advisor. Geithner and Summers both have strong ties to…